The Hindu: Hyderabad: Thursday, June 28, 2012.
In a new twist to the controversy over Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu “secretly” meeting the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram over Telangana, the latter’s office, responding to a RTI query, has clarified that there was “no official meeting”.
Instead of putting an end to the controversy, the clarification dated June 15, appears to have raised more questions here.
If it was not an official meeting, did they meet unofficially or informally ?
For Mr. Chidambaram had categorically told Telugu Desam MP Nama Nageswara Rao that the latter’s leader had “met me separately” during a debate on Telangana in Lok Sabha on May 2, 2012.
The Home Minister’s comment had triggered a row here with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Telangana JAC claiming that it has confirmed their long held view that Mr. Naidu was in touch with Mr. Chidambaram and both were behind scuttling any move for formation of Telangana. TRS demanded that Mr. Naidu should come clean on the issue.
Disturbed:
Disturbed by the allegation, Mr. Naidu flatly denied having met or discussed Telangana with Mr. Chidambaram and charged the Centre with misleading people by spreading such falsehood instead of taking a decision on the issue.
If both did not meet officially, why are they reluctant to admit that they indeed met informally but did not speak about Telangana to end the confusion? asks Rakesh Kumar Dubbudu, activist who submitted his application under RTI to the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking details of Mr. Chidambaram’s statement in Lok Sabha.
Mr. Rakesh based his contention on the statement made by the Home Minister in Lok Sabha on May 2 while replying to a question on Telangana : “We are on record that we want all eight political parties to express their opinion. I have heard both Shri Nama Nageswara Rao and Shri Owaisi. Shri Nama Nageswara Rao met me separately. His leader met me separately. You have met me a number of occasions”.
Details sought:
In his query sent on May 4, Mr. Rakesh wanted to know how many times Mr. Naidu met Mr. Chidambaram between November 2009 and now, details of all such meetings and places, copies of note/ representation/ letter submitted by Mr. Naidu to the Home Minister and minutes of all meetings between them during the period.
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